"THE MORNING IS HERE! THE MORNING IS HERE! THE MORNING IS HERE!"
The small, electronic voice of All Might shouted from Izuku's nightstand, bringing him out of what had been a muddled, nervous sleep. He couldn't remember when he had fallen asleep, only that he had been tossing and turning for hours as he wrestled with his nerves. Blinking the sleep from his eyes he turned his head on his pillow to look at his limited edition All Might Sleep SMASH-er Alarm Clock - the tiny, cartoonish figure of All Might punched its fists into the air above the digital clock. He smacked his hand over the All Might's oversized head (mouthing a silent apology to the real All Might as he did so) which turned the alarm off immediately, and then laid back to stare at the still unfamiliar ceiling of his new dorm room.
"It's the first day of school at UA." he said and immediately felt his guts turn to ice as his nerves wriggled inside of him. "The first day. My first day in the Hero Course. The Hero Course that will teach me to be a hero. ME to be a Hero." He sucked in his breath and shook his head, "It will be fine. Y-you can do this Izuku! You just…just need to not screw up your first day at UA…and then the day after that and the day after that…"
He let his words become a mumbled mantra of sorts as he pushed himself out of his bed and got ready for the day. He picked out his clothes, laid them all out on his bed, went over to the small suite bathroom, poured himself a cup of water, used the cup of water to drink down his anxiety medication, showered, brushed his teeth, and then after toweling off put on the university uniform. Most other universities and colleges in Japan and in America did not have uniforms for their students but again UA was eccentric in that it had a uniform dress code - wanting to remind all of the students that despite having graduated High School and were adults they were still responsible for their education and upholding UA's reputation. His brows knitted in frustration as he tried to tie his dress tie but after several failed attempts decided to leave it loose, put on his blazer and head out to the dorm's kitchen for breakfast - and a confrontation.
He had not seen Kacchan after Togata-senpai had wheeled him away back down the other dorm hallway even when he had left the girl's hallway after he and Tsu had met up at Itsuka's room. He had beat a hasty retreat back to his own room for the night but had not seen the explosive blonde at all on his way there. As he peeked out of his hallway into the kitchen and dining area he did not see Kacchan there either. He did however see nearly half of the dorm sitting down, eating breakfast and conversing as well as several comforting, familiar faces.
"Good morning Midoriya." Itsuka waved at him after he had skirted the crowded dining tables and made a beeline for the kitchen. The smell of rice, eggs and grilled fish assaulted his nostrils mercilessly as he approached, his eyes darting between Itsuka where she stood with an empty plate and the zip-zooming form of Nejire-senpai as she floated between the kitchen stoves humming a tune to herself. The long curls of her hair seemed to bob and float in the air in an almost fairy-like way.
"G-good morning Kendou," he felt himself smile before he glanced at their senpai as she flipped a pan practically overflowing with scrambled eggs. His eyes flicked back to Itsuka with an unspoken question. 'Was she…?'
"Togata-senpai took everyone for Class 1-A out to breakfast at the Cafeteria. While Nejire-senpai here is cooking Class 1-B breakfast and apparently they will switch off for dinner - a sort of welcome to UA thing or something." Kendou shrugged with a sheepish smile, she looked like she was about to add something else but was interrupted as Nejire literally landed in between them, her feet hitting the floor tiles for perhaps the first time all morning, a massive pot filled with the eggs, fish, and rice chaotically mixed in held out in front of her.
"Yep! Yep! Dean Nedzu thought it would be a great idea for the RAs to get to know our little kouhai and I think it's been great so far! You know? I've been able to ask sooooo many questions about everyone's quirks. At least those in Class B. For Class A I'll be able to get to them later. It's just too bad Amajiki had to suddenly leave for something important this morning, you know? I'm sure it would have been good for him but when he begged me on his knees to take over making breakfast for all of you I just couldn't say no, you know?"
All the while Nejire spoke in her machine-gun pace she was shoveling the contents of the pot out with a spatula onto Itsuka and Izuku's plates. Not seeming to notice that she was piling on a small hill's worth of food until Itsuka finally stepped in, reaching out to grab Nejire's arm and stop her from giving them more than they could eat. "That's enough, Senpai and -yes- I think we got it, er, know what you mean. Though don't you think you've made enough food? Maybe? You know?"
"Hm? Oh, not really." Nejire smiled as she bounced her head back and forth against her shoulders, turning around so she could flip the entire pot's contents out onto another empty plate, "My quirk uses up A LOT of my stamina so I always have to eat-eat-eat a lot so I don't pass out! I get soooo sleepy. Does your quirk make you sleep when you use it or is it just me?"
"That's interesting actually. T-the hypermetabolic rate of your quirk m-must be something else!" Izuku had put down his plate and had his notebook and pen in hand, as he added in new notes for Nejire's quirk he did not notice the slightly horrified expression on Itsuka's face as Nejire smiled widely at him and began to open her mouth to speak again-
-only for Itsuka to wrap her arm around Izuku's, grab his plate, and beat a hasty retreat toward the dining tables while saying, "Would you look at the time? We better eat or we'll be late for class! Talk to you later, Senpai!"
Nejire did not follow after them and it seemed like a blur for Izuku as one moment he was being dragged and the next moment he was in a chair with his plate clattering down in front of him. Itsuka groaned as she slumped down into an empty seat next to him. On his left was Tsu while across from him was Setsuna, Ochako, and to his surprise Shoji. All of them appeared to have looks of sympathy for them (though it was harder to tell with Tsu - Izuku noticed her brows were creased together more than they would normally).
"Kero. It looks like Itsuka did not have a chance to warn you about Nejire-senpai." Tsu croaked on his left.
"Girl is sweet and pretty hot but she has…quite the mouth on her. Not like mine of course." Setsuna grinned as the lower half of her face detached itself from her body and floated in the air for a few seconds before she re-attached it to her head.
"Set-chan!" Uraraka giggled, and elbowed Setsuna, her cheeks becoming momentarily redder than they normally were before they faded back into their usual cheeriness, she looked at Izuku "What did you say to her? She always seems super excited about everything so it's hard to tell!"
"Hmm. It sounded like your question nearly set her off, Midoriya-san." Shoji's muffled voice said behind his mask, one of his tentacle-ears waving toward the kitchen and where Izuku sat. That was right, Shoji's amazing quirk gave him heightened senses which included hearing.
"I-I was just c-commenting on her q-quirk." Izuku said and looked helplessly as the girls around him groaned as if that was the worst possible thing he could have done. Which it seemed like it really was.
"Eeeeh! Wrong move there, Moptop!" Setsuna announced, holding her arms up together like an 'X'. "That one is a living chatterbox. Us girls should know about it after last night…"
"That's a rude thing to call our RA, Setsuna. Especially after she met with us and told us that if we had any issues while at UA we could always come to her about them. Educational or personal." Itsuka admonished while she wagged a finger. She did however wince when she added, "Though, Nejire-senpai does have the tendency to…go off on tangents. Especially about quirks."
"We somehow went from talking about fire extinguishers to her asking us to test out if Uraraka-chan, Set-chan, and Reiko-chan's quirks could cancel each other out." Tsu poked at her plate with her chopsticks.
"And did they?" Izuku asked, his notebook back in his hand - he did not even fully comprehend he was frantically turning the pages to a new blank page or that he had nearly leaned all the way out of his seat toward Tsu in anticipation. At least until he felt Itsuka grab him by the collar of his blazer and pull him back into a sitting position.
"I am getting the feeling…" Shoji said slowly as he crossed his arms, "...that it may be a bad idea to leave the two of them together alone."
Izuku blinked at Shoji, not comprehending what he meant, again not noticing the pale-eyed dread that both Itsuka and Tsu stared at him with, or the red flush on their faces.
XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX
They left as a group toward the main hall building where their Heroics Homeroom for Class 1-B. It gave Izuku the perfect opportunity to look around and observe the quirks of his other classmates - especially for his own quirk. Though Itsuka had taken away his notebook at breakfast so he just had to make mental notes until he could write them all down later when he got to class.
Ibara was a familiar face, she politely asked if she could join Itsuka's group as they left and was welcomed - Setsuna introducing her to everyone who had not met the vine-haired woman before though she did not seem to appreciate the…borderline vulgar explanation for how Izuku had copied her quirk by accident. Izuku had to explain it truthfully as Itsuka and Tsu turned toward him stone-faced for some odd reason.
There was also the young man with a tail and the young woman with jacks for earlobes, he remembered seeing them before. Was the tail prehensile? It certainly looked strong and he wondered if it upset the owner's balance terribly. Those ear jacks had something to do with sound or electronics. He wondered if quirks had emerged hundreds of years earlier or thousands of years - before the industrial period - if something like her quirk would have developed? Was it a response to a modern level of technology development? He bit off that train of thought quickly, he knew that was the sort of question that could last hours if not longer. Quirks were weird and that was a fact.
There was also a set of clothes walking on their own - he guessed she had an invisibility quirk of some kind - and a foreign looking woman with blonde hair and a pair of horns sticking out of her head - perhaps her quirk was just a simple horn mutation? One boy did not seem to have a normal head, it was like a comic speech bubble and he was talking to a good looking guy with black hair with no obvious looking quirk mutations. The first one probably had something to do with words or characters and Izuku briefly wondered what it would feel like to be able to see and talk and smell without any visible eyes, mouth, or ears. He would just have to wait for the other's quirk to display itself before he could make any mental comment.
"Is he alright?" Shoji asked hesitantly, his voice making Izuku realize just how dry his tongue was from his stream of mumbling - and that they had actually arrived outside of their classroom.
"It is not an affliction." Ibara assured, having been subject to Izuku's questions just the day before, "He has been granted a curious, intelligent mind and it simply wishes to understand the heavenly blessings that are our quirks."
She clasped her hands together as if in prayer, above her one of the lightbulbs in the ceiling surged slightly brighter for a moment before it dimmed. Still, Izuku winced and bowed apologetically to Shoji.
"S-sorry! I hope I wasn't too annoying! Sorry!"
"It's alright." Shoji held up four of his hands in a placating gesture, "You just got really focused and I've never seen anyone be like that with quirks. Definitely their jobs and other hobbies - just not quirks."
"It's pretty amazing what he can figure out about quirks when he really gets going." Itsuka said and patted Izuku's shoulder fondly. She opened her mouth to say more-
*CRACK*
The sound of a whip cracking in the air caused everyone to jump in place, even the level headed seeming Ibara. A voice, a woman's voice filled to the brim with a teasing tone spoke behind them.
"Well. Well. I'm looking forward then to seeing what Midoriya AND the rest of you can do when you," the voice paused to let out a soft groan followed by very loud (and perhaps too over the top) lip smacking noise, "get GOING~ Especially in MY class~"
As a group they turned to the owner of the voice. Izuku immediately felt his face flush red as his eyes took in the full bodied figure that had appeared before them. From her flowering purple hair to the skin-tightness of her hero costume, seeming to suck in his gaze like an inescapable whirlpool to the sultry and mischievous look from behind the Pro Hero's domino mask. Knowing she had all of their attention, Midnight: The 18+ Hero cracked her whip again and again making all of the students jump.
"Come now my little hatchlings!" she said as she walked forward, her heels clicking on the tiles until she was right in front of Izuku. He was taller than her but somehow to him it seemed like she was looming over him and he was frozen still as quick as a lash her hands reached out -
-and faster than his eyes could track she pulled apart the mess that was his tie and had it properly looped around his neck. After pulling it tight so it was snug against his throat she stepped back and seemed to smile at her handy work.
"We have a busy day ahead~"
